Zoe Consults W.E.C.A.R.E

“Revolution! Revolution!!” young people groups cry. Human rights’ activists scream ‘Let’s move forward’. Corporate organisations root for ‘massive change’. It is amazing to note that the level of awareness among the populace of Nigeria is on the increase. We realise there is the need for change -the need for a revolution.
But what change do we pray for? what kind of revolution do we seek? Is it the kind that is currently sweeping through Syria, Egypt and a few other Arab nations? One that leaves blood, sweat and tears in its wake?

My answer is an emphatic ‘NO’; and I’m sure I speak for the millions of Nigerians residing within the walls of this nation and for the ever-increasing number scattered across the globe. Yes! We need Change! Yes! We want our nation to take giant strides instead of the ‘ant-steps’ she is currently taking. However, the revolution we desire is one of the mind. I call it a #MindRevolution -a revolution of intellectuals.

It is time our Universities and other institutions of higher learning begin to focus on building the mind of its students rather than equipping ’empty heads’ with high sounding degrees. It’s high time we do away with courses that have very little or no relevance to the scheme of things in our nation. It’s time we wake up to the realities of life obtainable in Nigeria rather than continue to dwell on impracticable theories. It’s time our professors and other academics focus on research -of course with the government providing the basics -an enabling environment and the funds to go with.

However, even if the government turns a blind eye to its responsibilities, corporate organisations like the telecommunications giants MTN and GLO -and others who are raking in trillions of Naira on a daily basis -should compete not only when it comes to getting more subscribers but also in the number and quality of research they fund. Banks are not left out. They should revisit and tune down the conditions attached to the provision of loans to Small and Medium scale Enterprises. Thereby, encouraging young entrepreneurs.

Finally, to the army of young people resident in Nigeria, it is time to develop your most valuable asset -Your Mind. Develop and make full use of your mind. Make your education a priority -whether formal or informal. The fact that you could not go to or complete school does not automatically make you a dunce or a tout. You have a brain -you have a mind that is capable of thinking and creating the impossible. To those who had the opportunity to complete school, the degree on that sheet of paper isn’t a decoration. It does not matter the quality of the degree, what should spur you is the opportunity you had to have learnt a thing or two. Now use it! Young men and women, Think Positively. Think Progressively. Think Creatively. Think Solutions. Improve on the quality of thoughts generated by your mind. Use the social media as a tool for radical change. Read about, Write about, Talk about and Initiate Change.

As I lay on my bed with my mobile device in hand, I observe SMSs, BBM display pictures, Facebook updates and tweets -and they all have one theme: Nigeria is a year older! “Happy Independence Anniversary,Nigeria!”. But as our dear nation becomes 54, a question suffices :” is there anything ‘really’ worth celebrating? There ‘really’ is a long,endless list of things that aren’t working in our country. The Educational system is a mess. Health Care is in shambles,and the mortality rate is way too high. It’s the 21st Century where man literally ‘lives’ in space, yet Nigerians still grapple with the challenge of electricity(I actually made use of a rechargeable lamp to put together this piece *smh*). The masses are poverty-stricken and the cost of living keeps sky-rocketting. Corruption seems to be a norm…and let’s try not to add ‘boko haram’ to the list. The nation is in a disjointed,sorry state. As such,the question arises again: “is there anything ‘really’ worth celebrating?”.I dare to provide an emphatic ‘YES’!

Every nation has its peculiar challenges; and ours is no different. Nigeria is and will always be the Giant of Africa. This is home to the largest population of blacks on planet earth. Fact! The home of intellectuals and Nobel Laureate-stuff! Fact! The mother land of African renaissance! #Ourbloodisgreen! Looking back, we’ve come a mighty,long way. Looking forward, a bright future awaits! As we celebrate, here’s a word for the nation.

To the Leaders: Nigerians deserve a new lease of life! Create for us a system that works. Respect and have dignity for the youth. We need visionary leadership to take us to the Promised Land. Don’t ask us to sacrifice more when scars of previous sacrifices are yet to heal. Reform the education sector. As long as education remains under-funded, the woes will continue. For education enlightens a man’s spirit. Provide us with constant, uninterrupted power supply so Small and Medium Enterprises can develop. Cut the cost of governance. Increase the dividends of democracy to the governed. Let them be your focus. After all, they voted you into office. Give us a better reason to celebrate the Centenary next year other than just the rhetoric of Patriotism. Let not the labour of our heroes both past and present not be in vain! Lead, truly lead and we will follow.

To Nigerians…..especially the Youth: it is Not enough to fight and clamour for your so-called ‘rights’. Placards, guns and violence will only make things worse. There must be a shift in the frontiers of our revolution. It should be a revolution not with arms but a revolution with the intellect. A #MindRevolution! (Lend your voice to the discourse on twitter : @st_mykael with #MindRevolution). It is time to dream. It’s time to see with the eyes of the heart the Change we so desire. While it is obvious that the present ruling class cannot offer this Change, it is also clear that it rests in our hands. Fellow youths, it is time to dream. It is time to have a vision and a hope! It is time to run and soar with that vision. Refuse to be dormant! Don’t lie fallow! Break the status quo. Reach for new opportunities! See possibility! In the words of the great Indian Leader, Mahatma Gandhi, it is time to “…BE THE CHANGE…!”

The ability to dream is the greatest power on earth. The ability to imagine and incubate a vision is inherent in the human spirit and it manifests in the daydreams of a child. This gift of imagination comes from God Almighty and it provides mankind with the power to hope beyond the present. Without hope, life has no positive future.

Life was designed to be lived intentionally but most people of the world live under circumstances way beyond their control. They function under duress rather than live by destiny. It is said that the poorest person in the world is the one without a dream. The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life without purpose. Purpose gives meaning to life. The capacity to dream is the ability to keep living. As Miles Munroe puts it: “To have purpose is to discover hope,to hope is to dream, to dream is to possess a vision, to possess a vision is to have faith, and to have faith it to have a reason to live”.

Among the various “worlds” the most commonly encountered in the news was “third-world” which was initially coined by England in order to accommodate countries that were not part of European [Old World] or the New World [mainly the US and Australia]. Though the term “third world” is little used these days, Africa and parts of Asia used to belong to the “third world”. But whether it is called “third world” or “developing countries”, the fact is that of the over six billion people on planet earth,about four billion are struggling with the reality of a vision-less life. For most, history has robbed them of the capacity to dream. Hence, they’ve become visually dull -motivated only by a spirit of survival. These are the ones that have been defined as “Third-world” or “Developing” nations while the most technologically advanced and hence the most dominant nations live in the other “worlds”. But how is it possible that a minority lives in affluence and manages to control and keep the majority in a state of perpetual poverty, disease and hopelessness? Why do nations, with all the resources necessary to live decently and prosper as a people become so poor that they have to depend on foreign aid in order to stay alive – especially Africa? And yet, what most “third world” countries fail to understand is that the advanced world would never ‘help’ them reach full potential, because if that happens, most current political and economic theories would have to be abandoned and the world itself would be a different place. It means black Africans would cease to be the face of poverty on most international “aid” agencies’ posters, including the “United Nations” and the west would cease to be seen as benevolent benefactors – a current pedestal they seem to occupy in the minds of some Africans. However, every move of these “benevolent” countries and their programs wears only a thin veneer of aid while they advance their own political and economic agenda.

The formula that keeps most “third world” nations in poverty is simple: “Keep them in perpetual debt”. Most externally imposed economic models on close examination favour the country [or cartel] imposing or ‘suggesting’ the model than the receiving country. The ‘model’ normally seeks to take control of most economically viable and potentially productive forces in the country in the guise of modernisation. To complete the economic modernisation or ‘structural adjustment’ program, ‘easy’ loans and credits are made available in order to condition the ruling class to espouse and admire the results of capitalist productive forces without imbibing the rules and necessary discipline it takes. The leaders acquire a taste for everything foreign and help in destroying local industry by failing to protect or encourage internal productivity. Due to lack of fiscal discipline, fuzzy development plans, endemic corruption and total lack of protective or progressive laws that guarantee citizenship rights; education, healthcare and infrastructure suffer. Genuine democratic principles of equal representation and accountability are not instituted because leaders hate opposing views and anyone who tries to bring sanity to the system is systematically hounded and eventually destroyed through divide and rule tactics with the tacit complicity of a prostrate justice system. In the midst of embarrassing national failures the infrastructures that seem to thrive are the ones related to the exploitation of the nation’s natural resources and its export to the modernising country. For example, the rail system in Nigeria was first laid in order to get agricultural produce from the interior to the coast during colonial times and up till today nothing serious has been done to modernize or revive the moribund rail system in the country.

At the so-called independence of most of the ‘third world”, especially Sub-Saharan Africa which amongst the underdeveloped regions of the world appear throughout most of its history to be the favorite poster-boy of poverty and disease, there were leaders who were ready to move the region forward. But most of these leaders were prevented from gaining the political momentum necessary to actualise the dreams they had for their nations. These leaders were imprisoned, hounded like common criminals and some killed.

President Jonathan of Nigeria recently reflected on problems besetting Nigeria. I quote him in full; “Something must have gone wrong along the line from 1914 when the Southern and Northern Protectorates were amalgamated till date. When you look at the 1914 amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates, and between the period Nigeria got independence in 1960 and the time I was sworn-in as president, you will agree with me that I am not the problem of Nigeria. I have just stayed two years and the problems have been there before me. What we must do is to make a change for the development of Nigeria. We cannot check out like that of the television man…” I quite well agree with the gentleman to a point, because what were bequeathed to Africans were not nations but exploitable geographical entities led by willing puppets. However Mr President, Nigeria -and indeed the rest of the “third-world” nations have lacked visionary leadership. This has contributed largely to the state of these nations. We require a new breed of Leaders who are motivated by a sense of purpose. Leaders who will inspire confidence in their people. Leaders who will promote national visions that can birth the creative capacity of personal visions.

Taking Nigeria as an example, it is obvious that the wealth and resources of these so-called “third-world” or “developing” nations is immense, and if properly managed could well wipe out the poverty with which these nations have been commonly identified. The answer to their current dilemma is not more foreign aid, United Nations’ handouts,IMF debt-cancellation programmes or World Bank-loans, but the conception of noble visions and national ideologies. Only then shall we cease to be “third world” nations and take our rightful place as the cradle of mankind; the eternal flame from which the prodigal “others” come back to light their dying lamps – YES WE CAN! Mykael Mykael
CEO/Chief Consultant
Zoe Consults

“CAUTION: Once you feel pain, faint or dizzy, stop immediately”
Those are the words attached to the top of an exercise machine in one of the fitness centres I visit often in Lagos mainland. Intimidating right? Obviously! These words gently challenge my decision to get in better shape each time I step onto the machine for any sweat-breaking session. Often, right in the middle of my work-out,the word ‘STOP’ jumps out and screams at me; and I’m forced to decide if the change I so desire to see in my physical appearance is worth the present pain. Some days,it’s quite tempting to quit ti say the least but I know if I must achieve my set goal,then I must keep working at it.

My experience at the fitness centre is very much the story of everyone who wants to make positive changes in his personal,business,professional or family life. The desire to have nations,businesses,churches and families achieve new levels of excellence does exist. Change is beautiful. Change is inevitable. But the truth is that Change can also be difficult,even painful. However, individuals around the world must recognise that it is time to begin sustaining change or risk serious consequences.

Change is occurring everywhere in our world. Changes in political engineering,business,church ministries and government agencies take place with each passing day leading to new frontiers of excellence. However, as this unprecedented wave of Change continues,most people,businesses,and nations are simply being swept along in its wake. Their destinies are decided by the choices and decisions of others. Many try unproductive strategies when confronted by Change. Some try to ignore it;others try to avoid it;still others try to resist it or even sabotage it.

Fortunately,a unique group of young,Change-minded and Change-driven individuals is emerging. They come with the courage and wisdom not only to sustain Change,but also to initiate sustainable Change. These are the leaders that devise new strategies that actually work – strategies that enable churches,businesses,organisations,families and nations to prosper. While others are formal leaders who crave for exotic titles and political power;some others are rising from the grass roots – leaders who truly want to serve their nation. The future is being shaped by these Change agents who arise to challenge the status quo as it exists around them. They are armed with compelling vision, verbal eloquence, magnetic charisma, rock-solid character and faith in a better way. These new leaders have burnt their bridges behind them and are ready to give from the deposits in their hearts. They will serve. They will lead. They have the uncommon boldness to take on today’s challenges and provide solutions to today’s issues. They will not wait for the future to come wrapped in ‘tomorrow’ because these ones know that the future is here ‘today’.CHANGE IS COMING…CHANGE IS HERE….<Mykael Mykael
<CEO/Chief Consultant
Zoe Consults